God's Holy Fire: 'Made Alive in the Spirit!'

I will confess that this is one of the most challenging and difficult passages in all the Bible for me when I look at the whole context. What I take out of this, however, is that while Jesus' body died, his spirit — or better yet, his spirit and the Holy Spirit within him — never died. Jesus faced the forces of hell on hell's home turf and came back victorious from this spiritual battle (Ephesians 4:7-9; Acts 2:24; Romans 6:9). Jesus was raised up to a new bodily existence, having conquered death and giving us a living hope (1 Peter 1:3). The significance of his resurrection is incredible. He is the first fruits of those to be raised from the dead, ensuring that we will be raised, too (1 Corinthians 15:20-23; Romans 6:4-5). The power that raised Jesus from the dead, the Holy Spirit, is at work in us now (Ephesians 1:17-20). The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will give life to our mortal bodies (Romans 8:10-11). As the old song says, "Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus my Savior; he tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!"